White House considers diverting San Francisco Bay money...

1of15FILE-- Bayfront Park in Menlo Park is part of the South Bay salt pond restoration project. The Trump administration is considering diverting millions of dollars from San Francisco Bay shoreline restoration and flood control to help build the president’s wall on the southern border — part of a bigger plan under consideration to move disaster relief money to the project.Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle

2of15Bayfront Park in Menlo Park is part of the South Bay salt pond restoration project.Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle

3of15President Donald Trump holds a photo as he leads a roundtable discussion on border security with local leaders, Friday Jan. 11, 2019, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington.Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press

4of15GALLERY: WHAT HAPPENS DURING A PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?
As President Donald Trump and Congress bicker over Trump's call for $5 billion to build a border wall with Mexico, government agencies are preparing for a partial government shutdown set to begin at midnight Friday.
The dispute could affect nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice, as well as national parks and forests. More than 800,000 federal employees would see their jobs disrupted, including more than half who would be forced to continue working without pay.
The U.S. Postal Service, busy delivering packages for the holiday season, wouldn't be affected by any government shutdown because it's an independent agency.
Click through the following slideshow to see what happens in the U.S. during a partial government shutdown.Photo: Win McNamee, Staff / Getty Images

5of15WORK GOES ON
Social Security checks will still go out. Troops will remain at their posts. Doctors and hospitals will get their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. In fact, virtually every essential government agency, like the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, will remain open. Transportation Security Administration officers will continue to man airport checkpoints.
But hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be forced off the job, and some services will go dark. Even after funding is restored, the political repercussions could be enduring.Photo: HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images, Getty

6of15WORK GOES ON
According to a report by Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, more than 420,000 federal employees deemed essential would continue to work without pay during a partial shutdown, including about 41,000 law enforcement and corrections officers and nearly 150,000 Homeland Security employees. Those working without pay — three days before Christmas — would include about 53,000 TSA workers, 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and officers and 42,000 Coast Guard employees.Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

7of15WORK GOES ON
As many as 5,000 Forest Service firefighters and 3,600 National Weather Service employees also would continue working, with the expectation that they will be paid back in full once the government reopens.
Meanwhile, more than 380,000 employees will be furloughed — including nearly all of NASA and Housing and Urban Development and 41,000 Commerce Department employees. About 16,000 National Park Service employees — 80 percent of the agency's workforce — would be furloughed, and many parks would close. Some parks already are closed for the winter.Photo: Karl Anderson

8of15WORK GOES ON
Among those set to be furloughed: 52,000 staffers at the Internal Revenue Service, slowing analysis and collection of hundreds of thousands of tax returns and audits.Photo: Andrew Harnik, STF

9of15WHO WORKS — AND WHO DOESN'T
The rules for who works and who doesn't date back to the early 1980s and haven't been significantly modified since. The Trump administration is relying mostly on guidance left over from former President Barack Obama.
Under a precedent-setting memorandum by Reagan budget chief David Stockman, federal workers are exempted from furloughs if their jobs are national security-related or if they perform essential activities that "protect life and property."Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, Contributor / AFP/Getty Images

10of15WHO WORKS — AND WHO DOESN'T
The air traffic control system, food inspection, Medicare, veterans' health care and many other essential government programs would run as usual. The Federal Emergency Management Agency could continue to respond to disasters.Photo: Cliff Owen, FRE / Associated Press

11of15WHO WORKS — AND WHO DOESN'T
On the other hand, the Washington Monument and many other iconic park service attractions would close, as would museums along the National Mall. In the past, the vast majority of national parks were closed to visitors and campers, but during the last government shutdown in January the Interior Department tried to make parks as accessible as possible despite bare-bones staffing levels.
It was not clear Monday if that effort will be repeated.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who greeted visitors at the World War II Memorial and other sites in downtown Washington during the last shutdown, said Saturday he is stepping down at the end of the year.Photo: Carolyn Kaster, STF

12of15FEDERAL WORKERS STILL GET PAID — EVENTUALLY
While they can be kept on the job, federal workers can't get paid for days worked while there is a lapse in funding. In the past, however, they have been repaid retroactively even if they were ordered to stay home.
Rush hour in downtown Washington, meanwhile, becomes a breeze. Tens of thousands of federal workers are off the roads.Photo: Susan Walsh, STF

13of15SHUTDOWNS HAPPEN
Way back in the day, shutdowns usually weren't that big a deal. They happened every year when Jimmy Carter was president, averaging 11 days each. During Reagan's two terms, there were six shutdowns, typically just one or two days apiece. Deals got cut. Everybody moved on.
Before a three-day lapse in January, caused by Democrats' insistence that any budget measure come with protections for young immigrants known as "dreamers," the most recent significant shutdown was a 16-day partial shuttering of the government in 2013.Photo: Luis M. Alvarez, FRE

14of15LONG-LASTING POLITICAL REPERCUSSIONS
In a 1995-96 political battle, Democratic President Bill Clinton bested Speaker Newt Gingrich and his band of budget-slashing conservatives, who were determined to use a shutdown to force Clinton to sign onto a balanced budget agreement. Republicans were saddled with the blame, but most Americans suffered relatively minor inconveniences like closed parks and delays in processing passport applications. The fight bolstered Clinton's popularity and he sailed to re-election that November.Photo: Diana Walker/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

15of15LONG-LASTING POLITICAL REPERCUSSIONS
In 2013, the tea party Republicans forced the shutdown over the better judgment of GOP leaders like Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Republicans tried to fund the government piecemeal, but a broader effort faltered. Republicans eventually backed down and supported a round of budget talks led by Paul Ryan, R-Wis., then the House Budget Committee chairman.
Now, as House speaker himself, Ryan is struggling to head off a shutdown just days before his long-announced retirement. Democrats led by California Rep. Nancy Pelosi take over the House on Jan. 3.Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, STF / Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering diverting millions of dollars from San Francisco Bay shoreline restoration and flood control to help build the president’s wall on the southern border — part of a bigger plan under consideration to move disaster relief money to the project.

The White House is looking at nearly $2.5 billion allocated for California projects being worked on by the Army Corps of Engineers as possible sources to fund President Trump’s wall, according to a list of targeted projects obtained by The Chronicle from a source familiar with discussions. The White House could try to tap the money if Trump declares a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border to get around Congress’ refusal to approve his request for $5.7 billion for wall construction.

All told, the administration is looking at nearly $14 billion in Army Corps of Engineers funds that were part of a disaster relief appropriation made by Congress last year and have yet to be spent or obligated. That includes nearly $2.5 billion in hurricane relief for Puerto Rico and billions for hurricane-related aid in Texas. NBC News was first to report that the administration was considering the idea.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Trump has said he will “most likely” declare an emergency if he and congressional Democrats can’t agree on wall funding, although he said Friday he was “not going to do it so fast.” Trump walked away from a bipartisan deal in December that would have provided $1.6 billion for his wall efforts, demanding $5.7 billion and sending the government into a shutdown.

The impasse has forced about 800,000 federal workers and thousands of contractors either to go on furlough or work without pay.

The San Francisco Bay project is a long-in-the-works effort to build up levees and convert 3,000 acres of former salt ponds in the South Bay back into marshlands.

The federal government allocated $177 million for the project, but California’s Coastal Conservancy and the Santa Clara Valley Water District are expected to reimburse the Army Corps for half that amount.

The restoration is considered a crucial part of a region-wide effort to restore 100,000 acres of former wetlands around the bay within 50 years. The South San Francisco Bay Shoreline project would also protect bay communities against expected sea level rise.

“What they’re really talking about is killing a flood protection project in Silicon Valley to build a stupid wall,” said Coastal Conservancy Executive Director Sam Schuchat, who has been working since 2002 on research and planning for the project. “We have real flood risk for the northern part of the city of San Jose for which we have a real solution, and now they want to snatch it away from us.”

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David Lewis, executive director of the environmental group Save the Bay, said he believes it would be illegal for Trump to divert money from a project that Congress mandated.

“It’s vital to the restoration of San Francisco Bay and it’s already been delayed for many years, so keeping it moving is a high priority,” Lewis said. “It’s crucial for fish and wildlife and endangered species. Wetlands really are the front line protection from sea level rise for shoreline communities.”

A concerted effort has been made over the past two decades to repair the wetlands. Much of the 30,000 acres of shoreline flats once owned by salt manufacturers Leslie and Cargill have been restored. Three thousand acres near Alviso are scheduled to be the next phase of the job.

“This is a critical missing link for flood protection,” Schuchat said. “This is 3,000 acres of wetlands restoration that we can’t restore until the levee gets built.”

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove (Sacramento County), whose district includes the American and Yuba river projects, said it was unclear how seriously the administration was looking at diverting the money. He noted that Trump has chilly relations with the state’s Democratic leaders, and speculated that might influence what the White House does.

He pointed out that the dam project at Lake Isabella, for example, is in the district represented by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield.

“If they persist and decide this is where they’re going to go to get the money, they will go project by project and they’ll look at Lake Isabella and go, ‘Kevin McCarthy? Not a good idea,’” Garamendi predicted. “They’ll go to Sacramento: ‘Gavin Newsom? Screw him.’ There will be that kind of thing going on, picking and choosing based on the politics of that particular project.”

Newsom, California’s new governor, called the idea of diverting disaster money “unconscionable” in a tweet.

Unconscionable -- the President of the United States is trying to take funds away from California communities devastated by natural disasters to pay for an immoral wall that America doesn’t need or want. These games need to end. https://t.co/MGVXYMTF8P

Any move to declare an emergency for the southern border would face pushback from Democrats, either in the form of a legal challenge, congressional action or both.

But it’s not just Democrats who are concerned about diverting disaster-related funding. Trump could face bipartisan obstacles if he were to pursue the idea.

The top Republican on the House’s tax-writing committee, Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, represents a Houston district that was devastated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He told reporters Friday that he does not believe the White House will follow through.

“I feel confident that disaster relief dollars will not be tapped,” Brady said, citing his conversations with the White House. “They’re assessing throughout the breadth of government what are the unobligated funds and what can be tapped in the short term. But beyond that, I think it’s an assessment.”

The consideration alone, though, set off California lawmakers.

“Just the fact this would be under consideration is seriously concerning,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who chairs a key water subcommittee in the House.

“Whatever he chooses to do, we’re going to take him to court,” Huffman said. “This is political theater. He knows he’s not going to get his stupid wall ... so we’re going to have to play out this Kabuki for a few more rounds.”

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale (Butte County), said he is concerned as well about the Army Corps money suggestion.

“Let’s be very, very careful before we do something that pronounced on funding for Puerto Rico — let’s do a better assessment of that,” LaMalfa said. “And when we’re talking about some of the other infrastructure that would affect California’s flood control systems there, again, I’ve got a lot of concern about that, because (while) all of the areas I’m hearing about aren’t actually my own district, it’s all kind of a part of a matrix of systems.”

He added that although House GOP leader McCarthy is “straddling a thin line” in what he can say about Trump publicly, the GOP leader’s relationship with the president will “be very, very helpful.”